Senators Vote to Keep Alive Bill Overhauling Campaign Finances

By ALISON MITCHELL

Published: February 25, 1998

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24—
Defying the Republican leadership, a majority of the Senate today voted to keep alive legislation that would overhaul the way that the nation's political campaigns are financed.

The Senate's 51-to-48 vote against Senator Trent Lott's effort to table -- or kill -- bipartisan campaign finance legislation marked a symbolic victory for the bill's sponsors, Senators John McCain and Russell D. Feingold, who had long sought a direct vote on their proposal.

But their support fell well short of the 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster. A successful filibuster would insure that the campaign finance debate would end once again this year in a partisan stalemate. Forty-four Democrats and 7 Republicans voted to sustain the campaign finance measure, and 48 Republicans voted to kill it.

Minutes after allowing the overhaul forces their one symbolic victory, Mr. Lott, the majority leader, went on the offensive.

The Mississippi Republican used a parliamentary tactic that would allow him to choke off any more amendments that might build more Republican support for the McCain-Feingold bill. And in a dart that was aimed partly at President Clinton, who has supported free television time for candidates, Mr. Lott also offered an amendment of his own that would block the Federal Communications Commission from moving to require free or discounted television time.

Democrats responded by threatening to do what they did last year and to start tying the Senate in procedural knots to keep campaign finance overhaul alive.

''I'm disappointed and frustrated,'' said Senator Thomas A. Daschle of South Dakota, the minority leader, ''and I must say I'm prepared to take this to whatever length required to bring this to a successful resolution this week, next week, at some point in the future.''

The confrontation came in the aftermath of a Presidential election in 1996 that saw the virtual collapse of the post-Watergate public campaign finance system, as the two parties found ways to use soft money to get around the campaign spending limits in the public finance law.

But while the Republican leadership was intent on examining the President's campaign finance practices, it has fiercely resisted legislation that would eat into the G.O.P. fund-raising advantage.

Mr. Lott worked hard last year to prevent the campaign finance bill from coming to the floor, and only grudgingly allowed today's vote after overhaul supporters created a three-week logjam in the Senate last autumn.

The McCain-Feingold bill would ban the unlimited, unregulated large donations to political parties known as soft money which was at the heart of many of the 1996 abuses.

The bill would also curb issue advocacy commercials by outside groups, by saying an issue advertisement could not use a candidate's name or likeness within 60 days of an election. The provision is designed to rein in a practice that has become widespread in recent elections in which issue advocacy groups skirt Federal regulation of campaign commercials by broadcasting advertisements against candidates that never specifically urge votes against them.

The legislation also requires greater disclosure of campaign donations, and greater penalties for violations.

Supporters of the overhaul measure argued that the size of campaign donations has become corrupting and that the campaign abuses in 1996 made change essential.

''I am encouraged in a perverse sort of way that we've now got indictments,'' said Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, at a news conference today. ''There will be other indictments, I have no doubt, and where they will stop I'm not sure. I am convinced that there will be a groundswell in American public opinion, that there is a mandate to change this system.''

Other Republicans countered that the bill represented an unconstitutional infringement on free speech rights. Some also said it would prevent them from raising the money necessary for getting their political message out to the public through commercials and circumventing a news media they called biased against them.

''The Supreme Court has appropriately recognized that in order to have effective speech you have to amplify your voice,'' said Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican. ''The fundamental issue is this: do we have too much political discourse in this country? I would argue we do not. ''

Mr. Lott has introduced his own alternative to the McCain-Feingold legislation which would simply bar unions from using members' dues for political purposes without first obtaining their written authorization. Organized labor mounted a campaign in 1996, which included about $35 million in television advertising, to unseat the Republican Congressional majority.

The vote against tabling the McCain-Feingold measure this afternoon marked a symbolic victory for its sponsors. But it showed that they had the same level of support they did last year when the Senate reached a stalemate on the issue and that they had not picked up more votes despite their hopes that a few more Republicans would join their cause.

In an effort to win over more Republicans, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, along with Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, both Republicans, are now seeking to amend the McCain-Feingold bill in a way that answers Republican objections to advertising by unions.

The proposal would prohibit labor union money and corporate treasury funds from being used to broadcast campaign commercials 30 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election. It would also require disclosure of major financing sources for any radio or television commercials that target specific candidates during those time periods.

But Mr. Lott's parliamentary tactics left it uncertain whether Ms. Snowe's amendment could ever be brought to a vote.